


Snapshots

by flaming_muse



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-25
Updated: 2012-09-25
Packaged: 2017-11-15 01:29:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/521647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flaming_muse/pseuds/flaming_muse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kurt and Blaine have plenty of conversations via text, but sometimes they just send each other pictures from their days. Here are some of them.</p><p>spoilers through 4x02 (“Britney 2.0”), none beyond</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snapshots

**Author's Note:**

> I have no real ability for the visual arts, so there are only word pictures inside. Don’t be surprised!

(Kurt locks the door behind him and looks around. Nothing seems to be alive and crawling, which is a good start, but the noise of the city street is grating and unfamiliar through the hotel window, and it’s hard to find the romance of New York or the dreams of his future in this drab little box with only a thin door between him and the looming unknown of the real world.)

[image] A dim, spartan hotel room with a seafoam bedspread, a grey carpet, and navy curtains, Kurt’s small suitcase resting by the wall.

_I’m here._

*

(It’s strange, standing by his locker before homeroom like he does every morning and not being able to expect Kurt to show up beside him, his eyes alight with some plan or other. Blaine is glad he isn’t coming, because Kurt isn’t meant to be trapped in Lima, but the idea of them not being in the same place feels like a poorly tailored garment, not fitting quite right on his shoulders.

Blaine has to hang onto the hope that _he’s_ the one in the wrong place.)

[image] The inside of Blaine’s locker, pictures of the two of them tacked to the door.

_This needs an ‘I <3 NY’ magnet. :)_

*

(New York feels so much more right to Kurt with Rachel right there beside him, chattering away about living together in this incredible city. They may be two small and possibly lost fish in a very big pond, but he knows deep in his heart they were always meant to find their way hand-in-hand.)

[image] Rachel in a yellow beret, perched on a park bench and beaming at the camera.

*

(Walking into the choir room a little early for glee club, Blaine is struck by the weighty realization that no matter how many new members they add to the group, some people - a lot of people - are always going to be missing.)

[image] The choir room, the risers empty and Mr. Schuester turned away sorting papers at the edge of the shot.

*

(There’s something magical about the energy of the city at night, Kurt thinks as he walks down the block back to the apartment with a plastic bag of groceries in hand. It’s nothing like Lima, where the stores are closed by eight and main street is all but deserted after dinner. New York really doesn’t sleep. There are always people, always lights, always cars, always something. It’s amazing. It’s exciting. It’s inspirational.)

[image] A taxi whizzing by on a busy city street at night, its lights a blur against the neon-filled darkness.

*

(Blaine’s bedroom is quiet save for the whirring of his fan and the faint murmur of his parents talking downstairs. He jerks himself out of a doze for the fifth time in fifteen minutes, wishing he knew how to speed read so that he could be done with his reading already.

His eyes drift over to the framed picture on his nightstand, and he smiles sleepily at Kurt looking out at him.)

[image] A battered copy of _East of Eden_ resting on top of Blaine’s plaid bedspread.

_Better than Ambien!_

*

(Kurt is no novice to interior decorating, but there are still so many _colors_. He freezes for a moment as he takes them all in. There are so many possibilities for what sort of mood to create, from stark and modern to something desperately chic and European. He could do anything with those walls. He could become anything within them.

But this is no time to become someone who dithers, because he will only have one first New York apartment, and he is going to start his adult life on the right foot.)

[image] A hardware store display, hundreds of paint chips in tidy rows.

*

(Blaine smiles as Sugar leans back on the bench, her face raised to the sun and lit with laughter. It’s a gorgeous, warm day, and he’s glad to be outside with friends, even if the breeze is reminding him of one summer afternoon when he got to spend a lovely, lazy hour tracing the freckles blooming on Kurt’s nose and cheeks with the tip of his finger.)

[image] A pair of yellow sunglasses resting on a table in the McKinley courtyard in the bright sunshine.

_Shorts weather!_

*

(“Kurt!” Rachel says, tugging at his arm and all but dragging him down the row of stalls toward the most amazing, fresh, autumn smell. “Look at the apples!”)

[image] A plain white paper cup held by a hand clad in a butterscotch leather glove, steam rising in wispy curls from the amber liquid.

_Mulled apple cider from the farmers’ market we found a few blocks over today._

*

(It’s Friday night, and Blaine is home alone. His parents are out, his plans got canceled because Sam has a cold, and his boyfriend is hundreds of miles away.

Blaine lies on his bed, listens to music, and wishes for time to speed up.)

[image] The sun setting through Blaine’s bedroom window.

*

(Kurt’s heart is pounding in his chest as he pulls out his wallet and pays for the magazines. It’s not just that he’s going to study them to try to achieve a dream of his but also that he lives in a place where he can just _buy_ them, all of them, all at once, with no fuss or pre-ordering. He lives in a place where people other than him _care_ about them.)

[image] The latest copies of American _Vogue_ , French _Vogue_ , Italian _Vogue_ , and Japanese _Vogue_ fanned out on a formica counter.

_Research!_

*

(“Tots! Yes!” Artie cries, pumping his fist into the air.

Blaine’s mouth waters, and there’s a bounce in his step as he grabs a tray and gets in line with his friends. Tater tot day is absolutely the best day of his week.)

[image] Tina holding up a heaping plate of tater tots from across the cafeteria table like she’s offering it to the camera, her face full of joy.

*

(Kurt is woken way too early by the noise of garbage trucks out on the street, and he wonders as he buries his face in the pillow if he’ll ever get used to the rhythms of the city. Someday he’ll have a beautiful apartment on a high floor of a building overlooking Central Park, with a charming and efficient doorman, miles of gleaming hardwood floors, and neighbors as elegant as they are silent… but today is not that day.

Still, he’s in New York, and today is also not the day he’s going to start to take it for granted.)

[image] A view of the sunrise from the roof of Kurt’s building, the buildings around cast in silhouette and a white ceramic mug of coffee visible on the wall at the left of the frame.

_Good morning. :)_

*

(Adjusting the brim until it sits just right, Blaine eyes himself in the mirror. He is satisfied. He still likes to look good for himself, even though it is more fun dressing for Kurt’s approval.)

[image] Blaine, smiling at the camera with a hat on his head at a jaunty angle.

_I know you always liked this one. :)_

*

(One of the best parts of being in New York is the window shopping, and Kurt is in heaven spending hour after glorious hour poking through boutiques and looking at garments in showrooms. He just wishes he could afford to buy more of it. Or any of it.)

[image] A geometric display of hundreds of gorgeous bow ties in every color and pattern imaginable.

_When I am rich and famous, I am taking you here and getting you one of everything._

*

(Blaine likes having things to keep him busy, because it keeps him from having too much time to dwell on what he’s missing. But as he looks at the stack of homework he has to complete, he thinks he may have gone overboard on his classes.

He just has to remember that if he does well in school it will get him to where he wants to be, to what - who - he wants to have.)

[image] A table in the school library covered with books and notebooks, Sam on the other side of it with his eyebrows raised in amusement.

_A little light reading. :P_

*

(The leaves are dry and brittle as they crunch beneath Kurt’s boots, and he twitches a sad smile at the memory of Blaine dancing down a sidewalk in Ohio the fall before, bright leaves swirling around his ankles with each step.)

[image] A drift of red and orange maple leaves on the ground scattered in a carpet across the roots of a tree.

*

(The pumpkin spice latte is delicious, hot and sweet as it coats Blaine’s tongue, and he inhales the aroma happily before he takes another sip. Fall is here.)

[image] A ‘Help Wanted’ sign in the Lima Bean window.

_They’re still trying to replace you; I should really tell them it’s impossible!_

*

(A busker plays by the turnstiles, his singing a little off-key and his guitar fingering nothing special, but when he launches into the worst rendition of “Teenage Dream” Kurt has ever heard it’s not the arrangement but the deep _yearning_ from within that drives him to the other end of the platform.)

[image] A subway platform at rush hour, the train just pulling in, commuters moving toward it.

*

(Kurt’s dad’s shop isn’t quite the same welcoming environment without him being there, but there’s a lingering scent in the office that makes the hair on Blaine’s arms stand on end when he goes in there to wait while his car is being inspected. Kurt uses the same soap to get grease off of his hands, uses the same detergent that’s on the coveralls hanging on the back of the door. Blaine reels for a second, but in a good way, because it smells like home.)

[image] The Hummel Tire & Lube sign from below, the sky above bright blue and perfectly clear.

*

(Kurt pulls out his phone and snaps a shot of an interesting crenelation on a building, contemplating in the back of his mind how it would look blown up in black and white on the apartment wall. The last thing he wants to be is derivative and expected in his decorating, but there are so many wonderful details in the architecture of the city, and he can’t help but be inspired by them.

Two men walking together nearby catch Kurt’s attention, at first because being in New York has only honed his awareness of unknown people approaching him but then because he notices that their hands are entwined between them.

He stares for a moment, his heart fluttering and aching all at once, and then he makes himself look away and go back to studying the buildings instead. He can’t let himself think about it, not too much, not here.)

[image] A tight detail of a wrought-iron gate, the curls of the metal in the center of the image forming the shape of a heart.

*

(Blaine looks at the picture on his phone, the lump in his throat so big that he feels like he might choke, and has to shut his eyes to keep control of himself. He is filled with love and longing, so much of both that it hurts.

He breathes deeply, and when the sting of tears has dissipated he gets up from his bed.)

[image] The center of a windowpane foggy with a cloud of condensation, a wobbly heart drawn in it by a trembling finger.

**Author's Note:**

> Reminder: I am spoiler-free! Please tell me nothing coming ahead!


End file.
